An amusement-park ride is known wherein a car full of passengers is displaced through a circular or generally elliptical orbit lying in a vertical plane. Such an arrangement is shown, for example, in German utility model No. 8,007,321. This arrangement has a large upright post whose upper end defined a horizontal pivot axis. An elongated arm is pivoted at its center on the post at this axis and has at one end a passenger-receiving car and at the other end a large counterweight. Complex mechanism is provided to maintain the passenger-receiving car horozontal so that no one falls out as it follows its orbital path. Such an arrangement is relatively bulky and can normally only be dimensioned to hold a limited number of passengers. In addition a considerable amount of energy must be expended to operate the ride, relative to the small number of passengers which can be carried.
Another system is described in German utility model No. 8,011,876. In this arrangement four posts extending vertically parallel to each other and lying, as seen from above, on the corners of a horizontal rectangle, each support a respective arm of the above-described type. Thus each of these arms has at one end a counterweight and is attached at the other end to a single car carried by four pivots on the four arm ends and positioned so that it always automatically remains parallel to the ground. This system provides an extremely pleasant and exhilarating ride, nonetheless it takes up a considerable amount of ground space and itself is a great deal of heavy and complex equipment. Thus making such an orbital amusement ride portable for use in small fairs and the like is virtually impossible.